Business news

VITEBSK, 1 June (BelTA) – Russia’s Pskov Oblast is interested in purchasing Vitebsk-made foodstuffs and setting up joint trading companies, Pskov Oblast Governor Andrei Turchak said as he met with senior officials of Vitebsk Oblast on 1 June, BelTA has learned.

Emphasizing the need to strengthen interregional cooperation, Andrei Turchak said, "The authorities of the Russian region are ready to do everything to ensure that the products of agricultural enterprises of Vitebsk Oblast be presented in the retail networks of Pskov Oblast. In this regard, the consumers’ cooperative society has a specific proposal to establish joint trading enterprises which will sell Belarusian food products.”

The representatives of the Russian delegation stressed that the absence of such trading facilities is the result of significant shortcomings in this area. But in general, the share of Vitebsk-made products in the sales, especially of food products, is quite significant. Belarusian meat and dairy products are sold in Pskov Oblast through private entities with considerable price markup of 25-30%. Setting up joint ventures will benefit Russian consumers, who will receive a high quality product at a fair price, and also Belarusian manufacturers who will know that they have permanent partners in Pskov.

Andrei Turchak stated that it will be interesting for Pskov to learn about Vitebsk experience in urban landscaping, street lighting. The Pskov Oblast Governor recalled about the annual meeting of the delegations of regions on the Mound of Friendship. "Without humanitarian exchanges we will not be able to deepen the cooperation in other fields. We should not interrupt the contacts. We need to deepen them and fill them with concrete content,” he said.

The parties reached a preliminary agreement on the signing of the agreement on trade and economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation and action plan for its implementation during the 2nd forum of regions of Belarus and Russia in Veliky Novgorod in September 2015.

The existing cooperation agreement between the regions was signed in 1997 and needs to be updated. The new document is ready, needs to be finalized and approved.

The Pskov delegation will also travel to Orsha to visit the machine tool plant Krasny Borets.